Help my players hate me! (My players stay out.)

[carpedavid]

The last time I sent an assissin after the PCs, it poisoned their anti-toxins. They were extremely upset.

That's mean. Fortunatly for me, even though spiders are one of my favorite monsters, no one in the party carries any anti-toxins.

Also, I'm pretty sure that movement in the ethereal is slower than corporeal movement. You should keep that in mind.

According to the Ethereal Jaunt spell description, only movement up and down seems to be halved, although it does not seem to mention this anywhere in the DMG's description of Etherealness.

What does leather armor for a spider look like?

Er... rather round, and held together with lots of straps and buckles, I'd suspect.

If you pump that Use Magic Device, it could use a wand of Magic Fang. I don't know if potions of Magic Fang are standard, but I don't see why you couldn't have a few.

I've been looking for something to replace the Ring of Feather Fall. Potions of Greater Magic Fang it is.

And... this one is weird, but why not. Potion of Alter Self, grow arms, use climb speed to hang out on the ceiling, out of reach, and draw a polearm. Yes. Wierd. But it's just another layer on a very tall wand-wielding-armored-phase-spider-rogue cake. Which is a terrible, terrible kind of cake.

With mint frosting.

Hmmm. It is indeed a terrible cake, but not so terrible as Carrot Cake Soup.

 

[carpedavid]

I've added round by round tactics to Tillix's description. I've got the pre-fight and first round down, but I'm at a loss to the following rounds, other than repetition of round one ad nausem.

Thoughts?

 

[Polydamas]

Round 2: Maybe nothing...

Most guys I play with quickly begin readying attacks for ethereal foes. You can always wait them out. Adds to the tension too.

 

[Castlin]

I got the idea that movement in the ethereal is slower than the corporeal from the blink spell. It says you move at three-quarters speed. I figured since you were spending half your time in the ethereal, that meant movement in the ethereal was halved. I could be wrong.

If you make Tillix's potions coccoons full of magical goo that he sucks dry, the PCs might be a little less inclined towards looting him should they survive.

 

[carpedavid]

Round 2: Maybe nothing...

Most guys I play with quickly begin readying attacks for ethereal foes. You can always wait them out. Adds to the tension too.

I was thinking of having him only attack every other round, using the round when he's ethereal to gain the most advantageous position for his next materialization.

 

[carpedavid]

If you make Tillix's potions coccoons full of magical goo that he sucks dry, the PCs might be a little less inclined towards looting him should they survive.

That's absolutely perfect. In fact, I can see changing his "leather" armor to "web" armor. Or bits of leather held together (and on his body) with webbing.

Lovely.

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

Round 2

He could always wait a couple of days between attacks. Make them forget about the spider until he shows back up and repeats round 1, or sets their building on fire. I would make them crazy waiting for him to show up again.

 

[carpedavid]

Rules question...

Ok, I've been going crazy trying to figure out the answer to the following: A phase spider moves from the Ethereal plane to the material plane as a free action - does Tillix get sneak attack damage every time he moves from the Ethereal, or does he only get it the very first time, when the characters would be surprised.

The MM decription of phase spiders doesn't mention anything about targets losing their dexterity bonus to AC when the spider materializes, so I'm inclined to say no.

On the other hand, I don't think the designers anticipated a phase spider with levels of rogue.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

Re: Rules question...

Ok, I've been going crazy trying to figure out the answer to the following: A phase spider moves from the Ethereal plane to the material plane as a free action - does Tillix get sneak attack damage every time he moves back into the Ethereal, or does he only get it the very first time, when the characters would be surprised.

The MM decription of phase spiders doesn't mention anything about targets losing their dexterity bonus to AC when the spider materializes, so I'm inclined to say no.

On the other hand, I don't think the designers anticipated a phase spider with levels of rogue.

Any thoughts?

BACK into? no. From yes. I think it would work like a ring of blinking in a way.

 

[carpedavid]

Re: Rules question...

BACK into? no. From yes. I think it would work like a ring of blinking in a way.

Er... yes. That's what I meant - I've edited my previous post to reflect that. I'm leaning toward it working like the blink spell, but in the description of the phase spider, it mentions that the spider's phasing ability works like the ethereal jaunt spell, which doesn't give the benefit that blink does.

I *really* want it to give the spider the benefit of sneak attack every time it phases in, but I can't find solid enough rules to back that up - especially since it doesn't mention that the target of a phase spider's attack is denied their dexterity bonus to AC.

I even emailed the sage, who wasn't at all helpful, answering everything I knew, except for my question:

My question:

Thanks in advance for your time. I have a question about phase spiders, and can't seem to find a decent answer anywhere. When they are ethereal, they are considered invisible to the material plane, but they can materialize as a free action. My question is: is a free action enough time to make them "not invisible" to a character? In other words, does a phase spider gain the benefits of being invisible whenever it phases in?

His answer:

A phase spider becomes visible when it "phases in." Note that the spider moves to the Material plane as a move action, not as a free action. It goes back to the Ethereal as a free action. This allows it to "phase in," bite, and "phase out" in one turn. Unless you've prepared an attack against the spider, you won't be able to hit it.

As you can see, he mixed up the movement times for the spider, so I wrote back:

I'm confused. In the SRD, it states that the phase spider moves from the ethereal to the material plane as a free action, but you've stated that it moves from the material to the ethereal as a free action.

Which is correct? If it is the former, then my question still stands: is a free action enough time for a character to recognize a threat and react defensively, or would they be denied their dexterity bonus to AC, as defenders against invisible creatures do? If the latter is correct, then my question is moot.

His reply to my reply:

The new (3.5) Monster Manual says Ethereal to Prime as a free action and Prime to Ethereal as a move.

Yes, you can prep an attack and nail the spider.

So I'm still stuck without a concrete position either way. More thoughts?